Peg Doll Caketopper

So, get yourself down to Joanns or whereever and find yourself some doll pegs, doll peg stands and peg doll heads. All should be in the aisle with the wooden items. Pick a square or circle wooden slab (in the under 4″ across neighborhood). Grab some simple SMALL brushes and assorted acrylic paints (that match you and your FI’s hair/eyes, I bought a strip of about 12 different colors). Now, go over to the scrap fabric bin and get yourself some white fabric and some black fabric (I would suggest at least .25 yard, so you have a lot of extra to goof up with). And get yourself some Modge Podge (I love it! You should have this at home at all times.) Put it together!

TIPS: I used some photos of other peg dolls online as inspiration so I could get a cute looking face, as opposed to something horrifying. My suggestion is simpler is better (e.g. I didn’t give my people arms, that got too frusterating for me). And, peg doll heads usually come 4 to a pack, where the pegs and stands come about 40 to a pack. So you may need to buy more heads. At the end, I painted the tie on the groom because I just didn’t want to mess with fabric that small.

Anyways, my steps went something like this:

1) Coat head & peg in Modge Podge for a smooth surface and to seal wood.

2) Draw hair shape and facial features in light pencil on head (before painting to see what it’ll look like)

3) Use small brushes (and a very steady hand) to paint on face and hair. (If you don’t have a light color for the cheeks, just skip them. Simpler is better.)

4) Use white or black paint respectively (I bought a set with about 12 colors) to coat the peg and stand for your bride or groom as a base. (I left some room at the top of each peg to allow for a neck and shoulders).

5) Take your fabric drape it on your dolls until you get the right shape to form a dress and suit.

5a) I’m separating this into it’s own step. Draping is not easy and will take a few goofs to get it right. I used a combination of Elmer’s Glue and Krazy Glue to get the fabric to go where I wanted and stay there. I also used some simple sewing on the back of the bride’s dress to get it to give the tiered shape I was looking for. The suit coat was a pain, I cheated a bit of a hem by gluing a hem on the inside. And the vest is made from some scrap I had at home.

6) Paint wooden base white6a) Glue scrap paper to top of base and once dry, trim to size.

6b) Seal base with Modge Podge to finish wood and scrap paper top.

7) Once both bride and groom are completed, glue in place on wooden base.

For the back of the dress, I pinched the fabric twice to create the layers. The folds at the bottom were glued on the bottom inside edges to make the pleats. I simple sewed the tops of the pleats where I pulled the fabric together. The jewel is a simple scrapbook embelishment. I wanted something small I could put on the front too, but the jewel was too big for that. I didn’t want to totally mimic my dress (which has straps) because I am more concerned with it being cute rather than being matchy matchy with my real dress. It’s a cake topper, not a Cabbage Patch kid!